I started with Lyx, which is quite good in itself. It can export to LaTeX. If you're completely new, you can start with writing a small document in Lyx, export it, and continue from there. Then you should see how the basic stuff works. Or you can use LaTeX commands in Lyx. After I went over to using LaTeX, Lyx has still been able to import my documents.
There are lots of free documentation as well. The not so short introduction to LaTeX2E is a very good introduction. If you use some kind of *nix, you should install the documentation that comes with your LaTeX distribution. At least TeTeX comes with a nice browsable help system: texdoctk. You probably have more documentation than you thought you had.
BibTeX is complicated. You should learn about it before you are halfway through your thesis, because there are lots of options and styles, and the styles take different options. BibTeX Tutorial is a bit helpful, but it doesn't tell you everything you want to know. There are many different citation styles -- natbib and jurabib are the only ones I've looked at. The former lets you choose between author-year and numerical citation styles, whereas the latter is based on footnotes. You probably want natbib in mathematics (but I'm not sure!).
LaTeX is actually quite easy to use, but you'll need an editor you can use with it, and one that you're comfortable with. Most people prefer Emacs, for some silly reason. It might have something to do with the fact that you can run the whole environment from within the editor. But don't be fooled! Vim is still the best editor out there! *ducks*
(More seriously: you can use any editor that will let you write plain ASCII text. If you prefer vim to Emacs, you can use that. But Emacs has loads of good LaTeX modes. I think AucTex is preferred among those who use it.)
If you really need to use the half-assed metaphor of reinventing the wheel, consider this: Wheels are different, and they are made different because they have different purposes. Your bike doesn't use the same wheels that your car uses, and a mountain bike doesn't even use the same wheels as a bicycle made for velodrome racing (whatever those are called). This is because of the simple fact that nothing is practical for every purpose. No wheel is perfect, and no browser is perfect.
So I prefer Konqueror when I use KDE, and Mozilla FireFox when I use Windows XP. I use the desktops differently, and have different needs for the browser. I don't think I even want Konq for Windows. But it's still a good browser.
OK, my answer could've been better. I just meant that a job in IT isn't that stressful -- you rarely get just a half-hour on a project, and you may re-use your ingredients if you have to scrap the work you've done. Not so if you drop your lobster soup on the floor. My answer was an attempt to show that there are jobs where the stress levels are much higher. It wasn't the most polite answer, and I apologize for that.
Coping with stress can be easy when you get used to working with time restraints in regular, short periods: You just get used to not work yourself up over it. Tell yourself that you've got more time than both you and your boss think you have, and you'll see that you're usually right. Besides, you don't work that much more effectively when you're worked up, so the extra calm doesn't really do any harm.
Coping with stress before an exam, or while trying to finish a thesis, is much more difficult IME, since the situation usually is new. I've just been through that, and it was hell (and no, my thesis isn't done yet). I'm not that stressed at the moment, because I've put my other worries aside (and I have lots of them -- being constantly broke is the worst).
I think it usually comes down to not being too bothered. Just focus on what you're doing, and fuck the rest of the world. Other things that might help: Breathing excercises, yoga?, working out (yes, being in good physical condition works wonders. I believe bicycling, jogging, etc. might be better than weight lifting).
The stress in that job will make you switch back to you cozy IT job and not regret it. Seriously, a cook usually dies before s/he's 55. The time constraints are ridiculous, and if you screw up, you'll have to do the same thing again even faster. Become a chef, and love your old job's stress.
No, I'm not a cook, but I've worked as one (not at McDonald's -- that doesn't count!). The really bad thing was that I learned how to cope with stress, and that really freaked out my co-workers.
Ah, come on! I was joking, not trolling for flames. And besides, how the hell was that going to attract flames? If that really was flamebait, it should be modded -1, ineffective.
(Was it the hippie part? Yeah, sure calling Steve Jobs a hippie is flamebait, but this was also clearly a joke. Some moderators are just in a dire need of a blow job.)
In a press release from Microsoft, Bill Gates states:
All Windows versions from 3.11 to 2003 are quite safe from this exploit, since Windows also supports the famously reliable NetBEUI protocol. In a proactive measure, Windows update will remove support for TCP/IP and ensure that all updated computers have support for NetBEUI only. NetBEUI will once again rule the earth! Take that, Steve! No, not you, Ballmer, the other Steve. The hippe. Woahahahahahaha!
In a quickly following press release, Bill Gates adds:
If SCO wins a single case in court about copyright violations, what's the point of cashing in your insurance to fight a battle that's already lost?
You seem to think that if SCO wins a case, they're going to own Linux. That's not very likely. If IBM contributed SCO's code to Linux, that's between IBM and SCO: IBM would have to pay loads of money to SCO for damages, and the code would have to be removed. If IBM contributed their own code to Linux in breach of contract with SCO, IBM would have to pay SCO money, and Linux users could care less. They don't have contractual relations with SCO, neither with IBM.
SCO's claims would be ridiculus, even if they were based on truth.
IBM didn't write Linux completely by themselves, but contributed some rather big parts. Instead of using the usual allegory with a car, consider it this way: You have done a huge research project, citing many sources. Now one of these sources is shown to be plagiary. Does that mean your research now belongs to the person that has been plagiarised?
My point is: A judge would have to be seriously fucked up to give away the work of other people because of some related person's wrong-doing. In no way has SCO the right to $699 for every copy of Linux shipped, and I think even SCO understands that. $699 is worth a lot in imaginary returns for speculants^W investors, though.
No, FreeBSD has had vchans (low-latency kernel software mixing) for a long time now, so sound from multiple sources "just works" like it does in Windows -- even on el cheapo cards with only 1 hardware channel.
Nice. Is this something that came with 5.x, or is it in the late 4.x as well? I don't think I had sound mixing when I last had FreeBSD installed with sound (4.8, I think). I still use FreeBSD on my laptop, but I haven't bothered compiling in sound support.
Stop complaining! At least you're not using Debian, like I do. Even Debian Unstable is still at... Hey! I'm already using KDE 3.2.2, and I haven't even updated today! Well, at least the editor Kate is still at 3.2.1.
Is that so? I've never seen that happen. But if you try the same on Linux or *BSD, the last program that tried to access/dev/dsp will hang politely while waiting for the first one to let go of the device[1]. That's why most distros will use esd or artsd, both of which are crap, and will occupy/dev/dsp for apps that aren't aware of the sound server. Yes, Linux does suck a bit when it comes to sound, although its capabilities are quite OK. If only all apps and distros would standardise on JACK, it could become great. In my experience it's quite a bit better than for the author of TFA, though. All sound cards I've tried have worked. Seems like he's just bitter because his particular brand is unsupported, and most of the time that is the vendor's fault.
[1]Unless you have a soundcard with hardware mixing supported by ALSA or OSS.
If your grandma thinks she wants a computer to work like a toaster, chances are that what she actually wants is a toaster.
A computer is a complicated thingy. You want it to be able to do lots of things, so it has to be modular. If you want it task oriented, a good paradigm is to have many apps that do one thing each, and do them well. These apps should work as filters, so you can filter the output from one app through another, and so on. These apps need to work on data, and data should be sorted in some way, like in files. You can extend that paradigm and make it universal, so it works as expected on every level. So a file system is just another file, and is read through a filter: the file system driver. And so on. There you have it, a task oriented computer operating system.
Seriously, if you want a bloody e-mail and intarweb surfing device with the abilty to write documents, you should rather look into something like BeIA internet appliances. You may notice that these devices, although they have been marketed, are not for sale anymore, and Be, Inc. has disappeared. Looks like the market wasn't ready for the OS Linux needs to be like before Linux is ready for the mass market.
I actually tried Gnome 2.x (don't remember which sub-version, but this was with FreeBSD 4.7) on a Pentium 133 MHz with 40 MB RAM. It was almost usable, but I ended up with WindowMaker. I don't think Gnome 1.4 would have started on the same hardware. It's a fact that Gnome has become much lighter with 2.x.
Word is evil, but Word is bad. When you try do good work in Word, it's bad because it's evil, and causes wrong. When you try to do evil work, Word is still bad, but being bad at doing evil, it ends up doing good.
The moral lesson of this: If you want to do evil work, you better steal the good guys' equipment, because your tools from your own kind might blow up in your face. And if you try to do good, you shouldn't be messing with evil in the first place, so you shouldn't have used Word.
n1 : medical practitioner who is regarded as the father of medicine;
author of the Hippocratic Oath (circa 460-377 BC) 2 : people who are adherent, or advocates of the hippo principles of government -- hippocracy. 3 : crates to carry hippos in.
You know, XP was meant as a trilogy to begin with. Microsoft just wanted to see if there was a market for it before the started producing parts 2 and 3. But you really have to experience the whole trilogy to truly appreciate XP at all. That's how it always was meant.
Oh, and while we wait: AniXPrick will let us know more of the XP mythology (security, usability, TCO and the real reason why a web browser, an instant messenger and a media player are integrated parts of the XP). And don't forget to buy the sound track, with unforgettable hits like tada.wav, chord.wav, notify.wav and the incredible recycle.wav!
My test is to search for MrHanky. If http://slashdot.org/~MrHanky is not on top of the list, the search engine is crap. This means:
Yahoo - useless
MSN Beta - understands that I've taken my nick from South Park (sponsored link) - bonus point, but still useless: it corrected my speling, and a real search for MrHanky still didn't get results. Interestingly, the first relevant hit was from a discussion about MSN Messenger.
AltaVista - 2. result. I can cope with that.
Google - We have a winner.
SELinux is included in 2.6 kernels. Of course, you also need the right userspace tools to take advantage of it. I imagine distros will use SELinux when they migrate to 2.6.x.
Slashdot Mirror
I started with Lyx, which is quite good in itself. It can export to LaTeX. If you're completely new, you can start with writing a small document in Lyx, export it, and continue from there. Then you should see how the basic stuff works. Or you can use LaTeX commands in Lyx. After I went over to using LaTeX, Lyx has still been able to import my documents.
There are lots of free documentation as well. The not so short introduction to LaTeX2E is a very good introduction. If you use some kind of *nix, you should install the documentation that comes with your LaTeX distribution. At least TeTeX comes with a nice browsable help system: texdoctk. You probably have more documentation than you thought you had.
BibTeX is complicated. You should learn about it before you are halfway through your thesis, because there are lots of options and styles, and the styles take different options. BibTeX Tutorial is a bit helpful, but it doesn't tell you everything you want to know. There are many different citation styles -- natbib and jurabib are the only ones I've looked at. The former lets you choose between author-year and numerical citation styles, whereas the latter is based on footnotes. You probably want natbib in mathematics (but I'm not sure!).
LaTeX is actually quite easy to use, but you'll need an editor you can use with it, and one that you're comfortable with. Most people prefer Emacs, for some silly reason. It might have something to do with the fact that you can run the whole environment from within the editor. But don't be fooled! Vim is still the best editor out there! *ducks*
(More seriously: you can use any editor that will let you write plain ASCII text. If you prefer vim to Emacs, you can use that. But Emacs has loads of good LaTeX modes. I think AucTex is preferred among those who use it.)
If you really need to use the half-assed metaphor of reinventing the wheel, consider this: Wheels are different, and they are made different because they have different purposes. Your bike doesn't use the same wheels that your car uses, and a mountain bike doesn't even use the same wheels as a bicycle made for velodrome racing (whatever those are called). This is because of the simple fact that nothing is practical for every purpose. No wheel is perfect, and no browser is perfect.
So I prefer Konqueror when I use KDE, and Mozilla FireFox when I use Windows XP. I use the desktops differently, and have different needs for the browser. I don't think I even want Konq for Windows. But it's still a good browser.
OK, my answer could've been better. I just meant that a job in IT isn't that stressful -- you rarely get just a half-hour on a project, and you may re-use your ingredients if you have to scrap the work you've done. Not so if you drop your lobster soup on the floor. My answer was an attempt to show that there are jobs where the stress levels are much higher. It wasn't the most polite answer, and I apologize for that.
Coping with stress can be easy when you get used to working with time restraints in regular, short periods: You just get used to not work yourself up over it. Tell yourself that you've got more time than both you and your boss think you have, and you'll see that you're usually right. Besides, you don't work that much more effectively when you're worked up, so the extra calm doesn't really do any harm.
Coping with stress before an exam, or while trying to finish a thesis, is much more difficult IME, since the situation usually is new. I've just been through that, and it was hell (and no, my thesis isn't done yet). I'm not that stressed at the moment, because I've put my other worries aside (and I have lots of them -- being constantly broke is the worst).
I think it usually comes down to not being too bothered. Just focus on what you're doing, and fuck the rest of the world. Other things that might help: Breathing excercises, yoga?, working out (yes, being in good physical condition works wonders. I believe bicycling, jogging, etc. might be better than weight lifting).
The stress in that job will make you switch back to you cozy IT job and not regret it. Seriously, a cook usually dies before s/he's 55. The time constraints are ridiculous, and if you screw up, you'll have to do the same thing again even faster. Become a chef, and love your old job's stress.
No, I'm not a cook, but I've worked as one (not at McDonald's -- that doesn't count!). The really bad thing was that I learned how to cope with stress, and that really freaked out my co-workers.
I usually get it handed out with my mod points. Yeah, I only use crack when I moderate. Oh, you said cracks.
Ah, come on! I was joking, not trolling for flames. And besides, how the hell was that going to attract flames? If that really was flamebait, it should be modded -1, ineffective.
(Was it the hippie part? Yeah, sure calling Steve Jobs a hippie is flamebait, but this was also clearly a joke. Some moderators are just in a dire need of a blow job.)
In a quickly following press release, Bill Gates adds:
You seem to think that if SCO wins a case, they're going to own Linux. That's not very likely. If IBM contributed SCO's code to Linux, that's between IBM and SCO: IBM would have to pay loads of money to SCO for damages, and the code would have to be removed. If IBM contributed their own code to Linux in breach of contract with SCO, IBM would have to pay SCO money, and Linux users could care less. They don't have contractual relations with SCO, neither with IBM.
SCO's claims would be ridiculus, even if they were based on truth.
IBM didn't write Linux completely by themselves, but contributed some rather big parts. Instead of using the usual allegory with a car, consider it this way: You have done a huge research project, citing many sources. Now one of these sources is shown to be plagiary. Does that mean your research now belongs to the person that has been plagiarised?
My point is: A judge would have to be seriously fucked up to give away the work of other people because of some related person's wrong-doing. In no way has SCO the right to $699 for every copy of Linux shipped, and I think even SCO understands that. $699 is worth a lot in imaginary returns for speculants^W investors, though.
Nice. Is this something that came with 5.x, or is it in the late 4.x as well? I don't think I had sound mixing when I last had FreeBSD installed with sound (4.8, I think). I still use FreeBSD on my laptop, but I haven't bothered compiling in sound support.
Stop complaining! At least you're not using Debian, like I do. Even Debian Unstable is still at ... Hey! I'm already using KDE 3.2.2, and I haven't even updated today! Well, at least the editor Kate is still at 3.2.1.
Wanna compare grep versions? Mine is at 2.5.1.
Is that so? I've never seen that happen. But if you try the same on Linux or *BSD, the last program that tried to access /dev/dsp will hang politely while waiting for the first one to let go of the device[1]. That's why most distros will use esd or artsd, both of which are crap, and will occupy /dev/dsp for apps that aren't aware of the sound server. Yes, Linux does suck a bit when it comes to sound, although its capabilities are quite OK. If only all apps and distros would standardise on JACK, it could become great. In my experience it's quite a bit better than for the author of TFA, though. All sound cards I've tried have worked. Seems like he's just bitter because his particular brand is unsupported, and most of the time that is the vendor's fault.
[1]Unless you have a soundcard with hardware mixing supported by ALSA or OSS.
If your grandma thinks she wants a computer to work like a toaster, chances are that what she actually wants is a toaster.
A computer is a complicated thingy. You want it to be able to do lots of things, so it has to be modular. If you want it task oriented, a good paradigm is to have many apps that do one thing each, and do them well. These apps should work as filters, so you can filter the output from one app through another, and so on. These apps need to work on data, and data should be sorted in some way, like in files. You can extend that paradigm and make it universal, so it works as expected on every level. So a file system is just another file, and is read through a filter: the file system driver. And so on. There you have it, a task oriented computer operating system.
Seriously, if you want a bloody e-mail and intarweb surfing device with the abilty to write documents, you should rather look into something like BeIA internet appliances. You may notice that these devices, although they have been marketed, are not for sale anymore, and Be, Inc. has disappeared. Looks like the market wasn't ready for the OS Linux needs to be like before Linux is ready for the mass market.
I actually tried Gnome 2.x (don't remember which sub-version, but this was with FreeBSD 4.7) on a Pentium 133 MHz with 40 MB RAM. It was almost usable, but I ended up with WindowMaker. I don't think Gnome 1.4 would have started on the same hardware. It's a fact that Gnome has become much lighter with 2.x.
Word is evil, but Word is bad. When you try do good work in Word, it's bad because it's evil, and causes wrong. When you try to do evil work, Word is still bad, but being bad at doing evil, it ends up doing good.
The moral lesson of this: If you want to do evil work, you better steal the good guys' equipment, because your tools from your own kind might blow up in your face. And if you try to do good, you shouldn't be messing with evil in the first place, so you shouldn't have used Word.
Bah! No Pope of my religion would use anything but SGI MIPS. I smell heresy!
Hippocrates
You know, XP was meant as a trilogy to begin with. Microsoft just wanted to see if there was a market for it before the started producing parts 2 and 3. But you really have to experience the whole trilogy to truly appreciate XP at all. That's how it always was meant.
Oh, and while we wait: AniXPrick will let us know more of the XP mythology (security, usability, TCO and the real reason why a web browser, an instant messenger and a media player are integrated parts of the XP). And don't forget to buy the sound track, with unforgettable hits like tada.wav, chord.wav, notify.wav and the incredible recycle.wav!
Debian has one too, but it depends on newer versions of various packages (libpam-modules) than what is currently in unstable.
SELinux is included in 2.6 kernels. Of course, you also need the right userspace tools to take advantage of it. I imagine distros will use SELinux when they migrate to 2.6.x.
And because of XFree86's license change, Debian will now be as up to date as all the other distros. In your face, Gentoo zealots!
My counting is fine.
I pronounce S - C - O 'skow'
Confusion arose.
First line should have five
syllables, second should have
seven. You fail it.
Dude, I read wrong. SCO,
when spelt out, S, C, and O
makes three syllables.
My apologies,
Anonymous Coward. You
master the haiku.
Nice. Microsoft would love the irony: After they killed off the competition, the EU would replace them with a dead OS. Preferably running on the Amiga.
Necrophiliac geeks in Europe would rejoice too.